A project to restore the 600 year old waka found near the top of the South Island has shifted indoors.
Fonterra is providing a building on its Takaka site to house the 6-metre waka for the next three years.
Upper south operations manager Chris Win says the dairy company was approached by Manawhenua ki Mohua looking for a large secure space.
The restoration is overseen by Professor Dilys Johns from the University of Auckland, who says a variety of treatments are needed to provide the structural strength to the wood that will increase the waka’s longevity.
She says the hull is made of New Zealand matai, but the turtle images carved into it suggest Polynesian ancestral origins.
The waka was found near the Anaweka estuary by the Nichols family.
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